All Grown Up: A Rugrats Remix
by Starshadow258
Summary: This is actually done later in the Rugrats' life, when they're in high school. Yeah, it's not my best writing, but whatever. :P Enjoy, and please comment!


Part One

Beep, beep, beep, beep!! Tommy groaned. He reached out and hit the "snooze" button on his alarm. He rolled out of bed and grabbed a yellow shirt and a pair of jeans. His old, fat dog, Spike, was lying across the hallway right in front of his door. Tommy stepped over the hound and walked into the bathroom. He looked at his reflection in the mirror. He sighed. 'Just another school day,' he thought. Within minutes, the teenager was dressed, his purple hair was styled and he was downstairs at the breakfast table. His brother, Dil, was sitting at the table too, with a green winter cap and shorts on. "Hey, bro!!" he said cheerfully as Tommy slumped into his seat.

Didi Pickles, Tommy and Dil's mom, was hovering over the oven cooking what smelled like bacon and eggs. "Good morning, boys," she said as she piled food onto three plates and set them on the table in front of her sons. "Where's Dad?" Tommy asked. "Oh, he's probably down in the basement working on another project," Didi replied. Dil shrugged and dove right into his meal. There was a bang and a muffled "AARGH!!" and soon after, Stu Pickles emerged from the door leading to the basement coughing as clouds of black smoke poured through the doorway. "Stu!! Are you okay? What happened?!" asked Didi. "It's nothing, Di," Stu said.

Just as Stu sat down to eat his breakfast, the smoke detector picked up the smoke leaking from the basement. The broken sprinkler system sputtered, only spraying the upper story of the house and the top three or four stairs. Tommy turned and looked out the large window. He could hear the bus coming. "C'mon, Dil. We have to go," he said. Tommy and Dil grabbed their backpacks, which were sitting by the door, and headed out just in time to catch the bus. Tommy sat down in an empty seat opposite the one of Chuckie Finster. Chuckie was Tommy's best friend since they were babies. "Hey, Tommy," Chuckie said. Tommy's phone vibrated twice. He looked at the screen. He had two messages: one from Chuckie and one from Kimi. He opened the top one, the one from Chuckie. It read:

Where r u? Its 4pm.

Tommy frowned at the message. "Chuckie," he asked, "when did you send this?" Chuckie peered across the aisle to look at the screen. "Oh," Chuckie said, "My phone's been freaking out lately. I sent that yesterday when we were going to meet at the coffee shop." Tommy nodded and deleted the message. Chuckie moaned. "Dang it, the three-button isn't working!!" Chuckie said. A murmur of laughter rose from Tommy and some of his friends. Phil and Lil DeVille, the twins from down the street, were sharing a seat behind Tommy while Kimi Finster, Chuckie's step-sister, sat behind Chuckie. Dil sat up front talking to his grandpa, Lou, the bus driver.

"Chuckie, just tell Mom and Dad that your phone's broken," Kimi advised. Tommy opened the message from Kimi. Tommy smiled, just a bit, at the message she sent him:

Hey ;) come 2 the dance comtee mtg.

Tommy pressed "reply." He typed a reply and sent the message. Moments later, Kimi pulled her red flip phone from her pocket. She looked up to see Tommy staring right at her. She smiled and read the message.

Y should i?

She typed in a message ("Whoa, that's fast," said Phil) and sent it back to Tommy. He read it:

Bcuz it's the freshman dance & theres 2 ppl running it.

Tommy rolled his eyes as the bus came to a screeching halt. As kids from the middle school piled off the bus, Tommy peered over the seat and sent the message he wrote. Kimi got it and smiled.

2day lunch. Ill c u there.

Tommy looked up and smiled as the bus took off again, this time to the high school.

First period English. Mrs. Saldabrar was scribbling notes on the board for the students to copy. The white board marker was squeaking with every movement of the pen. Only one week 'til school was out, no one was enthusiastic about taking notes. Add that on top of the dance in two days, plus finals, and your result is no one doing their work. Tommy was doodling in his spiral and Chuckie was staring out the window. Phil was sleeping and Kimi and Lil were sending texts to each other. Tommy was in the middle of drawing a car when his thigh started to vibrate. He jolted upward in his seat. He looked down at the lump in his pocket and took out his phone. "One new message," was displayed on the screen. Tommy hit the "open" button. It was from Kimi:

R u taking notes

Tommy looked up to make sure that the teacher still had her back turned to the class. He typed a reply:

No im drawing wrud?

He hesitated to send the message as Mrs. Saldabrar began talking over the squeaky pen, but seeing that she was totally oblivious to the fact that no one was listening, he sent the message. Kimi was quick to reply:

Txting lil and eating.

Tommy looked up. Sure enough, Kimi was munching on a chocolate chip cookie with her phone in her lap. The screen lit up as a picture of Lil appeared. Lil could be seen closing her pink cell phone from across the room. Tommy replied, saying:

O fun. We & the gang should c a movie 2 nite.

Kimi turned around to look at Tommy. She had a faint smile on her face as she looked at her phone. It was dead. She turned, ripped out a piece of paper from her notebook, wrote something on it, and threw him the wad of crumpled paper. "What were you going to say?" was scribbled in purple ink. Tommy picked up his pencil and wrote, "You, me, Chuckie, Phil, and Lil should see a movie tonight." He crumpled the paper back up and threw it. It hit Kimi's arm and landed in her bag. She looked up from her desk and searched the floor. She, unable to locate the note, turned to Tommy, shrugging. This meant that she had no clue as to where the note was. Tommy pointed at Kimi's crème colored handbag. She looked in it and found the wad of paper. She wrote a reply and threw it back just as Mrs. Saldabrar turned to face her class. Tommy picked it up and un-crumpled it in his lap. "Sure," Kimi replied. She glanced back ("Shoot," Mrs. Saldabrar said as she dropped her coffee on the already-stained carrot orange carpet) and saw the thumbs-up Tommy gave her. She shot a thumbs-up back and turned around. "The elements of fiction…" Mrs. Saldabrar began.

It was lunch time. Tommy forgot about the dance committee meeting, so Kimi had to pull him from the lunch table. "Come on, Tommy," she said, holding her lunch tray, "You said you'd go." Tommy stood up and grabbed his lunch. The two walked down the senior hallway into Señor Carlton's room (the Spanish teacher), where the meeting was held. Kimi was explaining what the committee members had already accomplished, like scheduling a deejay and booking a location. Tommy was surprised at who he saw in the room.

He had heard that it was just Kimi and a girl named Alison Carter running the committee. However, there were six people in the room, including Lil DeVille and a kid who lived down the street from Angelica (Tommy's older cousin) named Adam Rock. Alison must have recruited the rest, because there was Salina Silvershield, a girl who played tuba in the band, Danny Christiansen, a girl who hung out with the skaters, and Brenda Drain, who was a cheerleader like Alison.

"Oh, great!!" said Alison, giving a hollow smile showing off white teeth and flipping her blonde hair behind her shoulder, "We have another person… and a guy!! Adam should like this!!" Adam just grunted and whipped out a Game Boy from his pocket. "Well," said Brenda, "we should do some introductions, just so we could all get to know each other." She seemed to be looking right at Tommy, but he wasn't sure. "I'm Alison," Alison said nonchalantly, filing her nails. "I'm Brenda," said Brenda, who was now brushing her rich brown hair and batting her eyes. "I'm sniffle Salin-- sniffle aaah," Salina introduced herself while sniffing the saline nasal spray from a bottle. "Sinuses," she added. "Yo, I'm Danny C," Danny introduced. "Tommy already knows who I am," Lil said. Adam mumbled something like, "Adam… NO, ZELDA!!"

"Hi," Tommy said, "I'm Tommy…" Brenda pulled on his shirt, forcing him to sit in an empty seat next to her. Kimi sat across the room next to Lil and Alison, staring at Tommy and Brenda as she went. "Well," Alison began, "so far we're using the gym and we have some new deejay named Tony. Because he's new, he's not charging as much as our usual deejay." "How much are we sniffle paying?" Samantha asked. "Two fifty," Alison said. Kimi was recording all of this in a black spiral notebook. Brenda started talking about getting a fog machine for the dance when Tommy's phone vibrated. He flipped it open. It was a message from Phil.

Wrud? It's Chuckie.

Tommy hit the "reply" button, writing, "I m w Kimi a dance mtg." Just as he commanded his phone to send the message, he could feel something hot blowing against his neck. He turned to find Brenda huddled over his shoulders, reading his text messages. "Who's Phil?" she asked. "Phil's my friend, but my other friend is using his phone right now," Tommy said, shutting his phone. "Oh," Brenda nodded, "what kind of phone do you have?" she asked. "It's a Nokia," he said. Brenda nodded again. "Hey, Tommy," Kimi called from the other side of the room, "for the theme, do you think it would be cool to have a _Grease_ theme? Like, the movie, _Grease_?" Tommy looked up to see Kimi glaring at him (or was it Brenda she was looking at?), pencil still in hand. "Yeah, I think that's a great idea," Tommy said. Brenda pouted. "I thought it would be cool to do a tropical theme."

Just then, the bell rang. Everyone looked up at the clock. 12:30. Everyone stood up, throwing their garbage in the garbage can. "Adíos, estudiantes," Señor Carlton said as the dance committee filed out into the hallway. "Bye," someone mumbled. Tommy ran a hand through his hair. "Wait up, Tommy!!" Tommy stopped and turned. Kimi hurried to catch up to her friend. "So, are you going to stay on the committee?" she asked. Tommy shrugged. "Maybe," he said. Kimi nodded. "Cool," she said, "It would be awesome if you stayed." Tommy looked over at her awkwardly. "Well, it's just nice to have a guy's input," Kimi said, defending her statement, "and it's not like Adam does anything productive." Tommy chuckled. "We lost Lil," he said out of the blue. Kimi glanced around. "Yeah, we did. Where did she go?" Tommy shrugged. He turned into his math class while Kimi kept going forward to science.

"Psst!! Hey, Tommy!!" Tommy turned around to find Phil and Chuckie in the back of the room. "C'mere!!" Tommy got up and walked over to his friends. "Lil said that Kimi said that you said that we could see a movie tonight," Chuckie said. Tommy nodded. "Let's go see _Metal Dude_!!" Phil piped up. "Okay," Tommy replied, "are the girls okay with it?" Phil shrugged. "I'll ask," he said. He whipped out his phone and immediately began texting Lil. "Sit down!!" Mr. Lewis shouted.

Everyone met at the local theater right after school. They all bought their tickets ("_Metal Man_, guys? Honestly?" Lil moaned) and food. The group piled into the theater. For the grand opening, there sure was a small amount of people. Everyone sat in their usual row (Row 5, all the way down 'til you hit the wall, now sit, as described by Phil and Lil.) They sat in their usual order: Lil, Phil, Chuckie, Kimi, Tommy, and Dil. The already dim lights shut off moments later. The screen lit up. The advertisements for pirating movies and not talking in the theater began playing. Soon, the movie previews began playing. "That movie sounds cool," Dil hissed to Phil, Chuckie, and Tommy. "Kimi, we have to see that movie," Lil said, peering over the boys' heads. They always agreed to watch movies with each other based on the previews. Then the movie started. Everyone was glued to the screen.

Dil and Phil bought their own popcorn tubs (all the butter and candy they dumped in it!!), so Lil and Phil switched seats so that Lil could share with Chuckie. Kimi and Tommy were sharing their own popcorn. "AARGH!!" the actor in the movie screamed. Kimi reached for Tommy's hand, squeezing it tightly. Tommy looked over at her. She was still grasping his fingers. It took Kimi a moment to realize what she was doing. Her jaw slacked a bit, and, seeing the way Tommy was looking at her, let go. "Sorry," she mumbled. Tommy shifted in his seat.

"Well, I liked the movie. Sequel potential!!" Phil said. Lil thought otherwise. "It was so dumb!! You guys, it's nothing like the show!! I can NOT believe you made me sit through that!!" From then on, Phil and Lil argued on the awesome-ness of the movie. "Hey, you guys," Chuckie said, attempting to break up the fighting, "Let's all go get hot dogs!!" Everyone ran across the street to a small hot dog truck (picture a classical ice cream truck, only, selling hot dogs rather than popsicles and Dilly bars). "Ironic- five bucks for a 6-inch!!" Dil said. Everyone laughed. While Chuckie, Lil, Phil, and Dil kept walking on, Tommy and Kimi stopped. "Ketchup," he said. "What?" Kimi asked. Tommy wiped a glob of ketchup off of Kimi's chin. "Oh," she laughed. There was a loud clap of thunder. "Catch up!!" she said. "What?" Tommy asked. Kimi took off, running to the rest of the group. Tommy laughed and ran to join the group. "Good idea, guys!! RUN!!" Phil said.

The group ran from the downtown area of the city all the way across the industrial area to the residential area. Phil and Lil's house was the closest, so they stopped there. Betty was exercising on her treadmill and Howard was cooking. "Hey, kids," Betty said panting, "What—did you run through Mr. Jenkins' sprinklers again?" She was referring to Mr. Jenkins, the rich old guy living at the far end of the town. He had a huge, lush, green lawn with an entire sprinkler system (more of an army, really) planted to irrigate his grass. They would turn on every two hours and sprinkle for five minutes. When the kids were little, they would run through his sprinklers. The parents (Betty and Howard, Chas and Kira, and Stu and Didi) were always getting complaints about their kids. In fact, because they would do it so much, every time the kids came home wet, the parents would joke that they were "running through Jenkins' sprinklers again." The teens laughed. Good times…

"Why don't you guys start calling your parents?" Howard said, coming out of the kitchen with a plate of peanut butter cookies, "It's a school night, you know." "Okay…" they all mumbled. People began to dial their home phones on their cells and asked for a ride. They all were given towels to sit on (the DeVilles just bought new furniture). Phil and Lil left to change their clothes. They had the advantage of living in the house they were staying at, thus they had the advantage of having all sorts of clothes lying around to spare. Howard came out of the kitchen after five minutes or so with a tray of hot chocolate. "Thanks, Mr. DeVille," everyone chimed. He smiled and walked away. "And five… six… seven… eight and eight… seven… six… five… four… three… two… one… and lift… two… three… four…" said the TV. (Betty was now working out with an exercise tape.) "Come in and join any time, kids!!" she said through leg lifts. Loud techno music was playing in the background. "Yeah!!" Betty shouted ("She's feeling the burn," Phil said, clad in green plaid pajama bottoms and a plain gray tee, sitting down next to Tommy). There was a murmur of laughter.

DING DONG!! Lil, emerging from the bathroom in rubber ducky pajama bottoms, fuzzy monkey slippers, and an EMICA tee shirt, answered the door. "Tommy, your mom's here," she said. "Hi, kids," Didi said. "Hey, Deed!!" Betty said. "I'm taking Chuckie and Kimi home, too," Didi announced. Everyone stood up. "See you guys tomorrow," Lil and Phil said. "Bye," the Finster and the Pickles kids said to the DeVilles. "Chas is actually at our house now," Didi said as the four piled into the minivan. "He needed sugar." Didi drove down three blocks, turned left for four, and right one and a half blocks. Not only was Chas' familiar black car parked in the parking lot, there was a sleek grayish silver car. "Charlotte's car," Tommy mumbled. Charlotte was Tommy's aunt, and Angelica's mom. "Yes. Charlotte was going to pick up Angelica's laptop and CD on the way home," Didi said.

Sure enough, in the kitchen, Chas, Stu, Drew (Stu's brother and Charlotte's husband), Charlotte, and Angelica were sitting around the table. Angelica's rap music was blaring through her headphones and the adults were playing cards. Chas' sugar was abandoned near the sink. "Wanna watch TV?" Dil suggested. "Sure," Tommy volunteered an answer. "Hey!! I have clothes in my bag!! I'll be right back!!" Kimi said, grabbing her turquoise blue duffel and running into the bathroom. "You can borrow clothes if you want," Tommy offered to Chuckie. Tommy and Chuckie left to go into Tommy's bedroom to get a tee-shirt and a pair of jeans. Dil was left alone. "Hey!! _The X-Files_ is on!!" He flipped the channel.

The Finsters were long gone by now. Tommy and Dil were sent to their bedrooms so that Stu and Didi could watch their shows in peace. Tommy got onto his computer on his desk in his room and logged into the Internet. The computer beeped, a mini-window popping up in the bottom right hand. It said:

Online: Kimi-Kat.

Online: Chuckie.

Online: Phil.

Online: Lillian Rose.

Online: Angelica 3

Online: Dil Pickles XD.

Three new email messages.

Soon, there was another mini-window that popped up in the same spot. There was a red button labeled "Decline" and a green button labeled "Accept." Chuckie invited him to chat with him on Instant Messaging, or IMing. Tommy hit the "Accept" button.

Tommy: Hey guys!!

Kimi-Kat: hi

Lillian Rose: I can't w8 4 the dance!!

Phil: im not going.

Lillian Rose: Philip, don't lie to ureself.

Kimi-Kat: the grease themes been approved

Tommy: oh cool

Chuckie: oh great

Kimi-Kat: was that sarcasm?!

Phil: run

Lillian Rose: shut up phil

Angelica 3: what are you dumb babies doing

Tommy: Aaangelica!1 what are you doing

Angelica 3: I got Adam to hack the computer so any1 I have on my contact list that's online I can get into an IM convo.

Tommy: even though were in high school you still call us babies

Phil: pathetic

Chuckie: you guys kimi's in my room

Chuckie: HELP

Chuckie: hi its kimi

Chuckie: chuckies going to the dance

Tommy: Chuckie should totally take Samantha 2 the dance

Chuckie: brb chuckies going to get back on

Chuckie: okay its me

Kimi-Kat: hi guys

Lillian Rose: im going to bed.

Phil: I g2g 2.

Lillian Rose: bye c u 2mro

(Phil has just logged off.)  
(Lillian Rose has just logged off.)

Angelica 3: you guys are dumb.

(Angelica has just logged off.)

Chuckie: tommy I didn't do my math

Tommy: don't sweat it

Chuckie: im getting off to do it

(Chuckie has just logged off.)

(Dil Pickles XD has just logged off.)

Kimi-Kat: Dil never even talked to us…

Tommy: Yeah, he just wanted to look up some stuff for homework

Kimi-Kat: Chuckie's totally freaking out about that math

Tommy: Does he know it's not due 2mro?

Kimi-Kat: HAHA lets not tell him!!

Tommy: Okay :)

Kimi-Kat: So are you going to the dance?

Tommy: Maybe. Are you?

Kimi-Kat: Well, yeah!! I'm on the dance committee; we both kinda need to go!!

Tommy: If you insist…

Kimi-Kat: Yes, I do. ;)

Tommy: Okay. Mom says I need 2 go 2 bed.

Kimi-Kat: C U 2MRO

Tommy: Bye

Kimi-Kat: Sweet dreams (-

Tommy: What's that?

Kimi-Kat: It's a moon. (-

Tommy: I see it. Ha-ha. (-

Kimi-Kat: It could be our code. ;)

Tommy: Yeah, sounds good!!

Kimi-Kat: (-

Tommy: (-

(Tommy has just logged off.)

It was the day of the dance. Everyone was buzzing around the school, some with their authentic _Grease_ hairstyles set already. Almost every girl chose to dress up like Sandy and almost every guy chose to dress up like Danny. "They're planning on playing some of the songs from the movie periodically throughout the dance," Alison was hovering around Kimi the entire day filling her in on the dance. Kimi was filling Tommy in on her morning experience. Because Alison was a senior, she only had two real classes, both in the afternoon, and all her morning classes were independent study or teacher's aid. And although Kimi never really noticed it, Alison was in a lot of her classes. It was now lunch time, and Kimi and Tommy were sitting at a table with the rest of the gang. "She hovered over me in all of my classes and just talked. I swear, her jaw will be so numb by the time the day is over!! She went over every—little—detail!!" she said through gritted teeth. "Well, she's gone now," Lil said, eating a fry.

"Kimi's got a new girlfriend!!" Phil exclaimed, throwing sprinkles up in the air (the kitchen crew made complimentary cupcakes overloaded with sprinkles). "Shut UP, Phil!!" Lil said picking out the pink and white sprinkles from her blue strand of hair and the rest of her brown locks. "Seriously, Phil, it's not funny!! What if, say, Adam walked around and hoarded you for half your day!! It would NOT be a pleasant experience!!" Kimi said defensively. "Yeah, true, but all Adam does on his spare time is play his Zelda game," Tommy said, shrugging.

"Thanks a million," Kimi told Tommy sarcastically. "Any time," Tommy sarcastically replied. Kimi threw a tater tot at Tommy. "You guys, we're going to get into trouble for throwing food," Chuckie said. Tommy ignored his friend and threw a crouton at Kimi. People began to laugh. "You GUYS!!" Chuckie said. Phil flicked a Goldfish Cracker at Chuckie. "Lighten up a little, Chuckie," he said. Alison ran up to Kimi. "Hey, Kimi!! Sorry for bugging you, but I'm really stressed out because Roger Parker was supposed to bring the fog machine, and now it's broken, and we really need a fog machine!! Do you know of anyone who may have a fog machine to spare?" she was saying, her talking a mile a minute. "Yeah, 'cuz everybody has a spare fog machine on hand," Phil said loud enough for Alison to hear. "Philip!! You are so immature!!" Lil said throwing a piece of Rice Krispies Treat at her twin's face.

"Can you come with me, Kimi?" Alison said as her posse, Brenda met up with her. "Tommy should TOTALLY come; he could definitely help out with the fog machine incident. Would you be okay with that, Tommy?" she piped up. Tommy was hesitant. "Umm, sure," he said slowly. He got up with Kimi. "Hey, do you remember that Halloween where Kimi carved her initials into the tree?" Phil said randomly after Tommy and Kimi left. "Yeah," Chuckie said. "She carved hers and Tommy's. I remember getting mad because I was weirded out about my best friend liking my sister… even though it was the other way around." Phil stuffed a large amount of Hawaiian pizza in his mouth. "Don't you think—that Halloween—is kinda—repeating itself?" he asked through munching and swallowing his food. "Philip, you're a freshman and you still can't eat right," Lil said. "What do you mean, Phil?"

Phil swallowed. "Kimi and Tommy are going everywhere together lately. Do you not see a pattern forming?" Lil rolled her eyes. "You're retarded. You think having pizza every three weeks on a totally different day is a pattern. There's no consistency, so there's no pattern." Chuckie blinked. "Yeah," Phil said, "but they are consistently going off with each other." Lil groaned while Chuckie blinked again. "For DANCE stuff, Philip. I am so sorry to call you my brother…" Chuckie swallowed. "Phil's right. There's consistency." Phil punched the air. "Ha. Did you hear that Lilian?" Lil stuck her tongue out. "You guys… you are SO immature."

Tommy was walking alongside Brenda, and Kimi was on the other side of Alison. "Anyway, Kimi and I could go and search for a fog machine and then Brenda and Tommy can oversee the gym," Alison was rapidly saying. "Sure!!" Brenda exclaimed, grabbing Tommy's arm. Kimi swallowed and walked away with Alison. "Come on, Tommy," she said. "You're going to the dance, right?" she said, "I know I'm going, and I'm dressing up as Sandy, because she's just amazing in the movie. I love that movie, but I thought it would be much funner to do a tropical theme. You should dress up as Danny, and then we could go together, and tonight before the dance, you should come over to my house, and we can learn that one dance!! Wouldn't that just be super?!"

"Brenda, 'funner' isn't a word…" Tommy tried to say, "and I'm not interested in—" Brenda cut him off. "You know, Tommy, you're so talented, and smart, and funny!! I really like you!!" Tommy was bewildered. "You know, Alison's really stressed out, and so I was trying to comfort her, and now I'm pretty stressed out, too, but Tommy, you're such a calm person. Maybe if I hung out with you more, I'd be much more serene. Wait, 'serene' means 'calm' right? Tommy, can you hold my hand?" Before Tommy could say anything, Brenda grabbed Tommy's hand. Tommy's eyes darted around the room. What WAS this nonsense?! As Tommy was looking around the gym, he could have swore he saw Kimi and Alison.

Loud music was filling the night air. The bass could be felt all the way up through the students' legs. It was the night of the dance. Everyone was dressed up in the '60s attire to look mainly like Sandy or Danny. Brenda had conveniently found Tommy toward the middle of the line. "Hey," she said, grabbing his hand. "This hand-holding thing has become a habit, huh?" he asked her, a bit annoyed. Chuckie could be seen toward the front of the line with a girl he had a crush on since the 6th Grade – Samantha Shane. Phil nor Lil was nowhere to be found. Dil was at home (he couldn't attend high school dances, as he was still in middle school) and Angelica took the football quarterback, basketball captain, and track star Austin Teague. Kimi was with Adam. As Tommy and Brenda pushed their way through the line, Kimi shot a look at them over her shoulder.

By the time Brenda and Tommy got into the gym, "Tell Me More" was playing. "Ooh!! I love this song!! Come on, Tommy, let's dance!!" Brenda cried. She grabbed Tommy by the wrist and dragged him to the middle of the dance floor. "Brenda, I don't really dance—" Tommy tried to get out of it. "Well, then, why did you even come to the dance?" she asked. "Part of it is the fact that I kind of need to show up because I was officially a part of the dance committee. The other part is that both you and Kimi forced me to come," Tommy said. "Hey, Tommy," Austin said as he walked by holding Angelica's hand, "Nice date. She's great." He winked. Angelica snickered. "Tommy, I don't believe that you don't dance," Brenda said, running a hand through his purple hair, "You're actually pretty good." Tommy frowned a bit. "Uhh, thanks." The song ended. People were cheering.

Brenda wouldn't let Tommy sit down until a half an hour later, right after "You Spin Me Right Round (Like a Record Baby)" by Dead or Alive was done playing. "Woo," she said, "I'm getting a bit tired. Can you grab me something to drink?" Tommy sighed. "Yeah, sure. What do you want?" Brenda shrugged, and then giggled. "Surprise me!" she said, blowing Tommy a kiss as he turned. Tommy saw this break from Brenda as an opportunity to find his friends. As he neared the concession stand, he met up with Chuckie. "Hey, Chuckie," Tommy said. "Hey," Chuckie said.

"Okay, Tommy… are you and Kimi…?" Chuckie said, looking down at his feet. Tommy exhaled and was quick to reply. "Of course we're not, Chuckie. Wait, is this that whole Halloween-repeating-itself thing?" Chuckie looked up. "How did you find out about that?" he asked. "Lil told me. It's all dance stuff, really. There's nothing going on between us," Tommy assured his friend. "Okay," Chuckie sighed. Tommy and Chuckie bought their stuff and walked out of the gym to the commons. There were a few tables set out for people to eat, but they were mainly covered with coats. They sat down, pushing a pile of coats away. "Brenda is driving me insane!" Tommy blurted out as they sat down.

"Why?" Chuckie asked. Tommy took a sip of the soda he bought. "Well," he began, "She's been holding my hand on random occasions, she's read my text messages a million times, she's harassed me about everything up to the dance." Chuckie thought for a minute. "Huh," he said, "It sounds like someone has a crush on you." Tommy took another gulp of soda. "Oh joy." Chuckie opened up a candy bar. "So, I'm pretty sure Kimi likes you," he said. Tommy looked up. "What?" Chuckie nodded. "Yeah, I do. But she wouldn't admit it. But seriously, I do think she likes you," he said. Tommy thought for a minute. Kimi likes him? "And, you're okay with this? I remember that on Halloween you were totally weirded out and defensive and stuff," Tommy replied, raising a brow. Chuckie shrugged. "Well, it's kinda weird, but it's not like I can change her feelings." A strained silence hovered over the friends. "Tommy!!" called an oh-so-familiar voice.

"Brenda!! Hi…" Tommy said, pretending to be happy to see her. "So, Tommy," she said, folding her arms. "Like, four songs played while you were gone. Where were you?" "Getting your soda and talking to Chuckie," he said handing Brenda the other bottle sitting next to Tommy. "Oh," said Brenda, eyeing Chuckie like he was a bad influence on Tommy. "Can we talk for a minute?" she asked. She grabbed his hand and pulled him away from the table, leaving Chuckie alone.

"Is something wrong?" she asked, "Because you seem… not very into things lately." Tommy's stomach lurched. What was he supposed to say? "I've just had a lot on my mind," Tommy said. "You know, Tommy," Brenda said, "I kinda have a crush on you." Her face turned pink. Brenda grabbed Tommy's shirt collar and pulled him close. Tommy could see Brenda's eyes close, and soon her pointed nose touched his. Then, her soft pink lips brushed up against his, and then her lips pressed against his lips harder.

Kimi was walking around aimlessly, looking for Chuckie. But she was in for something greater. She turned the corner in time to see Tommy and Brenda locking lips in the corner. Kimi could feel her cheeks reddening and her forehead grew hot. She moved toward the bathrooms as if she just had to go to the bathrooms. Why couldn't that be Chuckie eating something? Kimi spontaneously hated Brenda, just because of what she'd just witnessed. Kimi liked Tommy, and she had the impression that maybe Tommy liked her back. Apparently not. She was going to just look for Chuckie and go home.

"Whoa," Tommy said, pushing Brenda back, "I'm sorry. I just don't like you like that." "Oh," Brenda said, looking down. "I get it. You like that Kimi girl." It was quiet. "You're a cool person, Brenda, but I just don't like you. Not in that way," Tommy said. "Yeah," Brenda replied, "It's okay. I shouldn't have put you in that position. Can we still be friends?" Tommy nodded and smiled. He turned to see Kimi walking back to the gym. "Hey, Kimi!" he called. Kimi looked at him, and kept walking.

"Hey," he said, catching up to Kimi, "Can we talk?" Kimi stopped and turned. "No." Tommy looked at her. "Why not?" Kimi sighed. "I thought you were… _talking_ with Brenda," she said. Tommy rolled his eyes. "Kimi, I've already settled that. I just wanna talk to you," he said. Kimi kept walking, this time faster, saying, "Yeah, locking lips really settles the matter… I don't feel good. I just need to go home." Tommy reached for Kimi's wrist. "Listen to me! There's nothing going on between Brenda and me," he said. "Tommy, I've liked you, for, like, ever. But you and Brenda look great together. Just… go and enjoy the night. It's the last dance of the year." Kimi broke Tommy's grasp and kept walking.

"God, Kimi! Would you just LISTEN to me?! I don't like her, I like you!" Kimi just kept walking. Tommy sat down on the floor and pressed some of the buttons. "Hey, Mom. Can you come pick me up?"

Kimi was halfway out the door when she realized that she had no way to get home, and she couldn't walk home. She'd have to turn around. She made her way back into the school to find Tommy sitting on the floor. "Hey," she said. Tommy motioned for her to sit down. She obeyed, seating herself next to Tommy. "You were saying something about me listening." Tommy looked away. "Yep."

"What were you going to say?"

"Hmm."

"Tommy…"

"That's my name."

"I'm sorry."

Tommy looked at Kimi. "What's up?" she asked. Tommy opened his mouth to repeat his words, but fell speechless. Kimi gave a faint smile and lifted her hand to close Tommy's jaw. Then she leaned in, eyes closed. This time, Tommy was ready for it. Unlike Brenda's kiss, this one sent chills down Tommy's back. Good chills.

Tommy and Kimi returned to the dance together. They weren't exactly holding hands, but their fingers were mingled together. Brenda and Adam were sitting near the door. "So… the little elf guy is Zelda?" she asked, peering over his shoulder, looking at the Game Boy screen.

"Hey," they said together. Chuckie, Phil, and Lil were standing in the corner talking. Lil nudged Kimi, really softly, and eyed Tommy and Kimi's hands. They unmingled their fingers. Phil opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by the deejay. "Alright, guys, this is the last song of the night. Enjoy the rest of your evening and drive home safely," he said (the deejay ended up being Tony). The song that was playing was "You and Me" by Lifehouse. Chuckie walked away, spotting Samantha Shane walking by. Phil went back to the concession stand ("This is his fifth trip down," said Lil, who followed him, saying that this was her first trip.) Tommy and Kimi were left alone. Tommy put his hand out.

"So… you wanna dance?" Kimi grabbed his hand. "Yes."

'_Cuz it's you and me_

_And all of the people _

_With nothing to do,_

_Nothing to lose and_

_It's you and me_

_And all of the people _

_And I don't know why_

_I can't keep my eyes off of you…_


End file.
